


Bloomed in a Dark Room

by Theoroark



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Capture, F/F, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Love Confessions, Questionably Ethical Medical Procedures
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-14
Updated: 2018-08-14
Packaged: 2019-06-27 10:28:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,174
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15683586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Theoroark/pseuds/Theoroark
Summary: Widowmaker is captured and handed over to Dr. Ziegler, to undo her conditioning. Whether she wants it or not.





	Bloomed in a Dark Room

Widowmaker had to give Amari this: she was adaptable as all hell.

 

She was in position to assassinate the German MP when she spotted her, at the edge of her scoped-in field of vision. In retrospect, Widow realized she must have done something to draw her eye, some flash of movement or light. She was loping across the rooftops, slow but at an angle disadvantageous for Widow. Widow glanced down at the penthouse window, saw no signs the MP planned on leaving, and grappled up to the roof.

 

Immediately, the comms unit in her ear buzzed on. “Gabe wants to know why you’re moving,” Sombra said in a bored voice.

 

“A higher value target presented itself,” Widow said. She situated herself in the shadow of a brick outcropping and began to scan the skyline for the Shrike. She heard Sombra’s chair creak and could just picture her leaning forward in anticipation.

 

“Well, you know you have to tell me who it is.” Widow’s mouth curved into a smile.

 

“Ana Amari.”

 

“Shit, I gotta tell Gabe that.” Widow could hear her typing but tuned her out as she continued her search. She caught a stray movement and there, in her crosshairs, was the Shrike, perfectly still, staring back at her.

 

“Widow.” Widow frowned. “Widow, get out of there.”

 

“She’s right there,” Widow murmured. “Why hasn’t she taken the shot? Didn’t she learn anything?”

 

“Widow! She’s not alone!”

 

Widow barely had time to register her warning before the butt of the rifle connected with her skull. The visor absorbed some of the impact, but she still fell. Her vision was going black fast but she could make out a man’s shape and a red light.

 

“Oh my God,” the red light said.

 

“Oh my God,” Sombra said in her ear. The fall had knocked the earpiece adjar, and the man tilted his head at the noise. “Widow, it’s okay, I’ll find you, I promise, I’m coming for you, I love you–”

 

The man plucked the comms unit from her ear and crushed it in his hand. Her vision went black.

 

-

 

“She was Gérard’s wife, Ana. I couldn’t just leave her.”

 

“She nearly killed me. Surely you could leave her for that.”

 

“Christ, don’t joke about shit like this. You sound like him.”

 

_Sleep_

 

“She’ll be furious.”

 

“But she’ll take her. And it’s not like we can do anything for her.”

 

“And Fareeha?”

 

_Silence_

 

“Ana?”

 

“I don’t know what else to do.”

 

_Sleep_

 

-

 

Dr. Ziegler took her in.  
  
The elder Amari dropped her off at her daughter-in-law's cabin in the Swiss alps, far away from prying eyes. Widow heard the muffled sounds of arguments between the two of them and the younger Amari, while Commander Morrison sat at her bedside and kept a dead-eyed watch. When the three women returned, Dr. Ziegler's face was blotchy and both Amaris wore identical stone-furious expressions.  
  
But Dr. Ziegler took her in. And with that, the elder Amari and Commander Morrison left.  
  
Dr. Ziegler drove down to a hospital she had worked at to gather supplies. The younger Amari handcuffed Widow to the bed and went about her business. Widow imagined that asking her why exactly she had those handcuffs would not endear her any.  
  
When Amari came into the room next, she was helping Dr. Ziegler carry in equipment and cases marked "SENSITIVE CONTENT." "Your... conditioning, was done through biotic implants," Dr. Ziegler said. "I invented the stuff. I can't get rid of it, that would cause too much brain damage, but I can edit it. Okay?"  
  
Widow stared at her with wide eyes. The comforting smile Dr. Ziegler had put on faltered. Amari sighed and left the room. Dr. Ziegler sat down at Widow's bedside.

 

“I know how O’Deorain is. I worked with her. I know she doesn’t care what you want, she’ll do whatever she wants to you.” She blinked rapidly after that and seemed to regret it, but pressed through before Widow could question her. “I’m seeking to mend everything she did to you. Everything. So whenever you need me to stop, just tell me, and I will.”

 

A day passed. Widow found she didn’t hate Dr. Ziegler as much as she hated Moira. And that was kind of the problem. She only realized that there was something in her because of how powerfully she did not want to be who Moira told her she was. Pushing back against Moira allowed her to develop lethally atrophied muscles, allowed her to bite back the smallest bits of control. Moira responded with a sickly smile and a tighter chokehold and it had hurt, but there had been something there to hurt. Her hatred of Moira had driven her.

 

Dr. Ziegler did nothing to merit hatred. She had taken Widow away from Sombra and Akande and Reyes, yes, but she sought to help. She listened to Widow. She did not touch her where she did not want to be touched. She was true to her word.

 

Widow did not hate Dr. Ziegler. But Dr. Ziegler hated her. Widow knew she did not know that. She knew Dr. Ziegler believed Widow was a carapace hiding Amélie, and that she needed to destroy a prison to free the woman trapped within. Widow did not know if any of Amélie was left but if there was, she did not want to die so Amélie could live. She liked herself.

 

And so Widow was alone and hated and had nothing to hold on to.

 

-

 

“You know I can’t love you back.”

 

“I don’t, actually.”

 

“Please. I know you hacked into Moira’s files. You know my physiology.”

 

“Yeah, and also I know you set yourself reminders to ask me about my day or to compliment my hair or whatever. I know you started wearing socks to bed because I didn’t like how cold your feet were. I know you want to love me back.”

 

“I do.”

 

“Well if that shit isn’t love, Widow, then it’s bigger than love. And it’s why I love you. So I don’t care. I love you and I like you.”

 

_Wake up_

 

-

 

She did not know if Dr. Ziegler’s attempts at reversing the conditioning were working. She still felt like herself. But there was the constant fear that if it did work, she would not know, her mind would simply slowly shift over in an unnoticeable osmosis and she would be gone without ever being able to grieve.

 

She tried to speak to Dr. Ziegler about it. “Talon won’t take me back now anyway,” she said. “I won’t kill anymore. You don’t need to do this.”

 

Dr. Ziegler mistook it for modesty. She put on a kindly smile and sat at Widow’s bedside. “I know I don’t need to,” she said. “I want to.”

 

“I don’t want you to,” Widow said bluntly. The smile vanished from Dr. Ziegler’s face.

 

“What?”

 

“I don’t want you to,” she repeated. “I like how I am now. I don’t want to change how I think or feel or act. This is who I am.”

 

“It’s the conditioning,” Dr. Ziegler said. “You just don’t remember.”

 

“Why does it matter if I remember?” Widow snapped. “You said you wouldn’t do anything I didn’t want. I don’t want this. Do you want to be like O’Deorain?”

 

Dr. Ziegler stood up abruptly. Her eyes were flashing and Widow immediately knew she had gone off mark, deeply off mark. “I am trying to give you back your full range of emotional capacity,” she said. “I am trying to ensure you have as many choices as possible. I’m literally doing the opposite of what she did. How dare you–”

 

She shut down when her voice began to pitch. It was too bad, Widow thought. Dr. Ziegler had never lied to her, that she knew of, but that felt like the first time she had been honest.

 

“Fine,” Widow said as Dr. Ziegler stood there, staring at the floor. “But I still don’t want this. I think that should count for something.”

 

Dr. Ziegler ran her hands through her hair and sighed. “We can talk about this later,” she said. Then she left Widow’s room, leaving the machines humming and thumping around her.

 

-

 

“This is so fucking like her. The first time she bothers to fucking visit, it’s to throw my life into utter chaos.”

 

“I know, okay? But I don’t think anyone’s happy here.”

 

_Sleep_

 

“She stayed with Commander Morrison. Him, she wants to have some quality time with.”

 

“I don’t think they’re happy, doing what they’re doing.”

 

“They’re together, though. Together’s bigger than happy.”

 

_Sleep_

 

-

 

The younger Captain Amari kept her distance from her. Widow only saw glimpses of her, seconds after she knocked on the door and before Dr. Ziegler shut it behind her. In those glimpses, though, she always managed fixed Widow in some fearsome glare. It was a warning, Widow knew, and not an unmerited one. Like mother like daughter.

 

On the third day, Dr. Ziegler said she wanted Widow to get physical activity. “Fareeha’s volunteered to escort you on a short hike,” she told her. She looked nervously up at Amari, who smiled winningly at her before turning back to Widow and returning to her previous stony expression. Widow sighed and stood.

 

“Let’s get this over with, then.”

 

Her skin only had a tint of blue to it now, she imagined she would look sickly but otherwise normal from a distance. Despite this, Amari was on constant lookout for their entire walk. Though maybe she was not afraid of how they would perceive Widow. Maybe she was afraid of what Widow would do to them.

 

They ran into no one on their walk. After a half hour, Amari stopped them. The small trail they had been walking had opened up into a rest area overlooking a vista. Widow remembered Amari’s aerial career and wondered if she, too, felt safe the higher up she went, the further she could see.

 

“Angela doesn’t have to do this for you,” Amari said.

 

“I know.”

 

“She shouldn’t do it for you,” Amari said bluntly. “You don’t deserve it. A decent goddamn person would have apologized to me by now.” Widow glanced at the steep, rocky incline she was a few feet from, and Amari barked out a laugh. “Don’t worry. I love her too much to kill you. You’re not worth that, either.”

 

“In that case, I’m not sorry.” Amari stared at her and for the first time, Widow felt comfortable meeting her gaze.

 

“Why not?” Amari asked, after a minute. Widow shrugged.

 

“It was my job,” she said. “It was your mother’s job. I did it better than her. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t be here now.”

 

“You might have,” Amari said. “My mother tried not to kill.”

 

“But she still killed,” Widow said. Amari sat down on one of the large, worn stones, and did not say anything for a while after that.

 

“I don’t know if you wanted me to understand you, or respect you, or some shit,” she said finally. “But I don’t. I still hate you. I still know my mother was better than you. Is better than you. She didn’t kill you now, when she had the chance to. She helped you instead. You don’t deserve that and you still don’t deserve everything Angela’s doing for you.”

 

She had been alternately entertained and exhausted by Amari up until now but now, she felt a snap of anger. It was chased by fear, because what if that was a sign, what if that anger meant Dr. Ziegler’s treatments were working, what if this was the beginning of the end.

 

“Fine,” Widow said, and she hated how her voice betrayed her irritation. “You hate me. And so you’re taking away everything I like about myself. We’re even. Can we go now?”

 

Amari started and Widow hated the dumb look of surprise on her face. Then Amari stood and said, “Fine,” and led her back to the cabin.

 

-

 

“We could kill her, you know.”

 

“Not without ruining both our lives.”

 

“Maybe right now. But some point later. We could kill her. I have every security camera in this place in the palm of my hand. We could wipe any trace of us off it. Gabe would help, I bet.”

 

“God, he hates her too. He’d fucking jump at the chance.”

 

“You could be free, Widow.”

 

“I don’t even know what that means.”

 

“You told me what she does to you.”

 

_Silence_

 

“I hate her, Widow.”

 

_Silence_

 

“I’m not going to do anything you don’t want me to do. I don’t want to make things worse for you. But I hate her so much.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“She’s not going to be around forever. Even if we don’t do anything, she’ll go down sooner or later. You’re not going to live like this forever.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“We just have to get through this.”

 

_Silence_

 

“I mean it, Widow. We’re going to get through this. I’ll be there with you every step of the way.”

 

_Silence_

 

“I know, I know, it’s me saying that. But like. I promise, okay?”

 

_Silence_

 

“I don’t care about Talon, but I love you. So I’m not leaving you. Even if I leave Talon, I’ll always come back for you.”

 

_Wake up_

 

-

 

The fifth day, the power in the cabin cut out.  
  
Dr. Ziegler's treatment had not affected Widow's superior night vision, so she could see how the doctor's eyes narrowed and how Amari whipped her head around to glare at Widow. "Angela," Amari said. "Get to the cellar."  
  
"Fareeha, I'm not leaving you–"  
  
"Angela," Amari said, and her voice broke, and Widow was horrified to find that in that moment she felt her pain. "You're valuable to them. They'd want you captured or they'd want you dead so no one could have you. They don't need more soldiers, they might let me go. Unless you complicate the situation. So please, Angela, I'm begging you. Go."  
  
Dr. Ziegler left. Fareeha went to a cupboard and took out a pistol. "If you so much as think about telling them where she is," she said to Widow. "I will kill you."  
  
Widow nodded.  
  
They waited in silence, Amari holding the pistol at the ready, Widow's hands clenching the sheet, for about a half hour. Then they heard the front door open and close. Amari pointed the pistol towards the room's door.  
  
At the foot of Widow's bed, a translocator beacon activated. Sombra pointed her gun at Amari, Amari swung around and pointed hers at Sombra. The two women stared at each other and Widow looked feverishly between the two.  
  
Sombra broke the silence. "Just let me take her," she said. "If you kill me, my coordinates will be broadcast straight to Talon HQ. You give me Widow, everyone walks away happy."  
  
"How do I know you're not bluffing?" Amari asked. "How do you know you don't already have reinforcements?" Sombra grinned.  
  
"Come on. Don't I look trustworthy?"  
  
Amari moved the pistol to point at Widow. Widow tried not to look at Sombra but her vision was still impeccable and she could not miss the flash of terror on her face.  
  
"Wait!" Sombra said. "Wait." Amari waited. Sombra took a breath, then placed the pistol on the ground and held her hands up. "Look, I... there's no one else, okay? It's just me. And I can go, if that's what it takes. But... please."  
  
Amari stared at Sombra for a moment, looked at Widow with an inscrutable expression, then said, "Take her and never contact us again."  
  
Sombra slowly set about unhooking Widow from the bed, keeping her hands in Amari's line of sight at all times. Amari did not lower the pistol. Sombra threw Widow's arm around her neck and Widow felt an immense wave of vertigo as she stood. "Are you alright?" Sombra whispered. Widow nodded. "The ship's right outside. We only have to go a little bit. Then you can sleep."  
  
They walked slowly, stumblingly past Amari, through the cabin's living room, and out the door. Widow looked behind them and through the spots in her vision, saw Amari watching them with her pistol still aloft. Sombra helped her into the ship and strapped her into a seat and kissed her softly. Widow watched her make her way to the cockpit and then her vision went black.  
  
-  
  
"I've called like three times, Gabe. You don't get to be pissy about 'making you worry' when you never picked up."  
  
"Well this may shock you, but I've been in a lot of emergency meetings recently. Two of our most valuable talent assets went missing and it has everyone real stressed out."  
  
_Sleep_  
  
"Does she believe you?"  
  
"I don't know. Mainly, she's just been acting angry, ranting about a catastrophic waste of time and resources. She hasn't said or done anything directed at me yet."  
  
"Are you going to be okay?"  
  
"What's she going to do? Kill me?"  
  
"Gabe."

 

“Just go somewhere, Sombra. Anywhere. I’ll keep the two of you safe. I promise.”

 

_Sleep_

 

-

 

Sombra brought them to her hideout in Dorado. "It's messier than your place at the base," Widow informed her, as Sombra kicked an empty energy drink can out of their way. She made a face.  
  
"I wasn't expecting company, okay?"  
  
She gently put Widow down on the bed, the ran to an adjoining room. Widow picked up her teddy bear and waited. Sombra came back with a glass of water and some crackers.  
  
"They fed me there, you know," Widow said. Sombra rolled her eyes.  
  
"Just take it, okay?"  
  
Widow did, ate and drank as Sombra worked at her computer. When she was done, she came back to bed and lay down next to Widow.  
  
"How are you doing?" Sombra asked.  
  
"I don't know." Sombra hummed and wrapped her arms around her waist.  
  
"Did they...?"  
  
"I don't know." Widow shifted in her grasp. "I feel... different, though."  
  
"Good different or bad different?"  
  
"Just... different."  
  
"I'll take a look in the morning," Sombra said. "Get into Ziegler's files. You'll be okay, Widow. I promise."  
  
Widow squeezed her hand. "Get some rest."  
  
"You too," Sombra said, and closed her eyes.  
  
"Thank you," Widow said, after a while. Sombra grunted.  
  
"Yeah, yeah. Thank me in the morning." Widow kissed the back of her head and closed her eyes.

 

-

 

_Wake up_

 

“Sombra? Are you awake?”

 

_Silence_

 

“Okay, good. So. I love you.”

 

_Silence_

 

“And I don’t know what that means. I don’t know if it’s real or not. I don’t even know what ‘real’ means. I don’t know if I’m the same person you fell in love with.”

 

_Silence_

 

“But I love you. And I’m going to keep asking you about your day and complimenting your hair and wearing socks to bed. I love you, but that’s still all I know to do. You said that’s why you love me and I always loved doing that for you. I hope that’s enough.”

 

_Silence_

 

“We should talk in the morning, I suppose. Actually talk.”

 

_Silence_

 

“Good night, my love.”

 

_Sleep_

**Author's Note:**

> Given the implied/referenced rape/noncon tag, want to be very clear this isn't a fic where Moicy was a relationship in the past. Also, big props to Lauren (formerly sombrashair on tumblr) for her "love is a choice" Spiderbyte meta that completely shaped how I see this ship.
> 
> I'm @tacticalgrandma on tumblr/twitter if you want to talk to me there.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and any comments/kudos would mean the world to me <3


End file.
